Looking at the regional decomposition of data on cycling raises a few interesting questions. In the Household Budget Survey of 2009-2010 the average weekly expenditure on bicycle purchases and repairs & accessories shows that those households in the Midlands spend only 0.01 cent per week on these items. This information can be sourced on the Central Statistics Office website. The CSO also have information on a special sport module conducted through the Quarterly National Household Survey. This module shows that the Midlands had the greatest proportion of their population of 15+ years engaged in cycling. The region with more active cyclists spends the least on bicycles. Maybe they are stealing, sharing or borrowing the bicycles in the Midlands.

A similar gap between expenditure and activity can be found in the Mid-East and Mid-West. The Midlands, Mid-East, and Mid-West seem to get a greater bang for their cycling-euro.

It is possible to decompose the expenditure between purchase and repairs/accessories. The two largest spending regions have different compositions of expenditure. Households in both regions spend about €1 per week on bicycles. However, the Border region spend about 5% on repairs/accessories whereas the Dublin region spends 43% on repairs/accessories. Is it repairs or accessories that accounts for the expenditure and what do is meant by accessories? Expenditure on accessories could be an attempt to "pimp my ride" - either making the cycle or cyclist look better. Maybe there are less middle-aged men in lycra rolling around the roads of the Border region. Expenditure on repairs could be taken to illustrate the state of the roads in each region. The roads could be so good in the border region that little repair is needed! Alternatively, the damage could be so great that they scrap the damaged bike and purchase a new one - hence the largest expenditure on purchases. We could do with more data to resolve some of these puzzles.

When asked about the main additional sports facilities needed for their local area, the two regions with the largest cycling activity rates gave substantially different answers. Only 10% of those in the Midlands specified "Designated on-road cycle routes" or "Off-road cycle trails". By contrast, almost 20% of those in the West listed these two items. As with the expenditure data, there are plenty of stories one could tell but it is difficult to get a clear picture of what is happening without better data.